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What is Your Emotional Intelligence, You Big Baby

What is your Emotional Intelligence, You Big Baby

Have you heard of this personality distinction? It’s kind of like an IQ (intelligence quotient) but instead of measuring the brains ability to process knowledge through a series of tests, the EIQ measures how well you decipher emotional responses. The textbook definition is, “To discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior.”

Say what? Here’s the bottom line: Can you read people?

Many experts feel that EIQ is a better predictor of future success than the traditional IQ tests. Additionally it’s a better indicator of quality of relationships and overall happiness. Get this, I once was told by a child psychologist speaking to a group of mom’s that is was better to have a B and C child than a straight A one. WTF! I didn’t say that out loud but you can imagine it was the collective thought with this group of competitive moms. She explained that the A children typically was too smart for their own good.

So this got me thinking, what is my EIQ? I set out to conduct some very thorough research via Google. My first free test could determine my score with just ten multiple choice questions asking me to rate how I would describe my reactions. I scored “above average.”

Well of course. We writers are always seeking to understand motivation for our characters’ authenticity. I was ready to take another test in an effort to qualify these results. The next test had 20 questions; however, something must be flawed with this one because my score was only “average.”

Fine. This average writer was going to find one more test and let that be the deciding factor, but clearly it needed to be more comprehensive. I found a test on Psychology Today that had 146 questions and took, according to them, 45 minutes to complete. I finished in 30 minutes, so I’m not sure if that helped my score or hurt it.

My score – on a scale of 1 to 100 – was 73. So, if 50 is the average, clearly I’m above that. I received a simple explanation of my score, but wait, for just $9.99 I could have the entire report along with suggestions for improvement. Oh, joy. If there was a test for the Gullible Quotient, I would score near perfect on that. No thank you, I’ll take it from here. Below is their *free response:

You are reasonably skilled when it comes to the core ability of identifying, perceiving and expressing emotions in yourself and others. There is still, however, room for growth. Overall, your skills in this area of emotional intelligence aid you in the process of reading others, understanding how they feel, and effectively identifying your own emotions. These skills form the basis of your ability to relate to the emotions of others as well as well as your ability to understand yourself.

Toward the end I fell asleep, so it’s okay if that happened to you to. But don’t you love the use of the term reasonably skilled? I’ll be sure and add that to my resume right away.